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The Perks of Being a Wallflower
The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a 2012 American coming-of-age comedy-drama film, and an adaptation of the 1999 epistolary novel of the same name; it was directed by the novel's author, Stephen Chbosky. Filmed in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the film was released on September 21, 2012, to positive critical response and commercial success, earning $33 million worldwide. The film stars Logan Lerman, Emma Watson and Ezra Miller. This is one of the three films from John Malkovich, Lianne Halfon and Russell Smith's Mr. Mudd Productions that feature struggling teenagers; the other two are Ghost World and Juno. Plot Charlie (Logan Lerman) is uneasy about beginning his freshman year of high school; he is shy and finds difficulty in making friends, but he connects with his English teacher, Mr. Anderson (Paul Rudd). Charlie sits with two seniors, Sam (Emma Watson) and her stepbrother Patrick (Ezra Miller), at a football game, and they invite him to tag along to several social activities with them. At a party Charlie unwittingly eats a cannabis brownie, gets high and discloses to Sam that the year before his best friend committed suicide. He also walks in on Patrick and Brad (Johnny Simmons), a popular athlete, kissing. Sam realizes that Charlie has no other friends so she and Patrick make a special effort to bring Charlie into their group of friends. Sam needs to improve her SAT scores to be accepted to Pennsylvania State University, so Charlie offers to tutor her. On the way home from the party, the three hear a song they are unfamiliar with ("Heroes" by David Bowie), and Sam instructs Patrick to drive through a tunnel so she can stand up in the back of the pickup while the music blasts. For Christmas, Sam gives Charlie a vintage typewriter to help his aspirations of being a writer. The two discuss relationships, and Charlie reveals he has never been kissed. Sam, though already involved with someone else, tells Charlie she wants his first kiss to be from someone who loves him, and kisses him. Charlie, in love with Sam, begins to try to find ways to show her how he feels. At a regular Rocky Horror Picture Show performance, Charlie is asked to fill in for Sam's boyfriend Craig, who is unavailable. Their friend Mary Elizabeth (Mae Whitman) is impressed and asks Charlie to the Sadie Hawkins dance. Charlie goes along with the resulting relationship to avoid hurting Mary Elizabeth's feelings, but grows more and more irritated by the situation. Finally, at a party, when Charlie is dared to kiss the most beautiful girl in the room, he chooses Sam, upsetting both her and Mary Elizabeth. Patrick recommends Charlie stay away from the group for a while, and the isolation causes him to sink back into depression. He experiences flashbacks of his favorite Aunt Helen (Melanie Lynskey), who died in a car accident when he was seven years old. Brad shows up to school with a black eye after being caught by his father having sex with Patrick, but he lies that he was jumped and beaten up. Brad distances himself from Patrick, calling him with a "faggot", leading Patrick to out him. Brad's friends begin beating Patrick when Charlie forcefully intervenes, but then blacks out. He recovers to find he has bruised knuckles and Brad's friends are on the floor, incapacitated. Charlie threatens, "Touch my friends again, and I'll blind you," then leaves. Charlie reconciles with Sam and Patrick. Sam is accepted into Penn State, and breaks up with Craig on prom night after learning he has been cheating on her. The night before she departs, she brings Charlie to her room and asks him "Why do I and everyone I love pick people who treat us like we're nothing?" to which he repeats advice he received from Mr. Anderson, "We accept the love we think we deserve". They confide in each other and kiss, but when Sam touches Charlie's thigh, he experiences a momentary flashback of his Aunt Helen, which he passes off as nothing, and they continue to kiss. After she leaves for college, though, his emotional state deteriorates and his flashbacks worsen; when he calls his sister blaming himself for Helen's death, and admitting he may have wished it upon her, his sister realizes he is in trouble and calls the police. Charlie passes out as they burst through the door and wakes up in a hospital, where psychiatrist Dr. Burton (Joan Cusack) manages to bring out Charlie's repressed memories of his aunt sexually abusing him. Through therapy, Charlie recovers and returns home where he is visited by Sam and Patrick. Sam explains what college life is like, and reveals she has identified the song from the tunnel. The three drive through the tunnel again, with Charlie in the back of the pickup this time. He kisses Sam, and acknowledges that he feels alive in that moment and declares "We are infinite." Cast *Logan Lerman as Charlie Kelmeckis *Emma Watson as Sam *Ezra Miller as Patrick *Mae Whitman as Mary Elizabeth *Paul Rudd as Mr. Anderson, Charlie's English teacher *Nina Dobrev as Candace Kelmeckis, Charlie's sister *Johnny Simmons as Brad *Erin Wilhelmi as Alice *Adam Hagenbuch as Bob *Kate Walsh as Mrs. Kelmeckis *Dylan McDermott as Mr. Kelmeckis *Melanie Lynskey as Aunt Helen *Joan Cusack as Dr. Burton *Zane Holtz as Chris Kelmeckis, Charlie's older brother *Reece Thompson as Craig, Sam's college boyfriend *Nicholas Braun as Ponytail Derek, Candace's boyfriend *Landon Pigg as Peter *Tom Savini as Mr. Callahan *Julia Garner as Susan Critical Reception The film received mainly positive reviews. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a "Certified Fresh" score of 85%, based on reviews from 151 critics, with an average score of 7.4/10. The site's consensus states: "The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a heartfelt and sincere adaptation that's bolstered by strong lead performances." On Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 based on reviews from critics, the film has a score of 67 based on 36 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". The lead cast also received positive notices. Ian Buckwalter of The Atlantic said "The primary trio of actors delivers outstanding performances, starting with Watson, who sheds the memory of a decade playing Hermione in the Harry Potter series with an about-face as a flirtatious but insecure free spirit. Miller also plays against his most recent performance, which was as the tightly wound eponymous teenage psychopath in We Need to Talk About Kevin, to deliver a giddy, scene-stealing turn as Patrick. Lerman, best known from the Percy Jackson series, shines as Charlie, a role that demands he be immediately likeable while still holding onto some deep darkness that can't be fully revealed until the end." John Anderson of Newsday also praised the cast saying "As Sam, the quasi-bad girl trying to reinvent herself before college, she (Emma Watson) brings honesty and a lack of cliche to a character who might have been a standard-issue student. But equally fine are her co-stars: Ezra Miller, who plays the gay character Patrick as something messy and unusual; Paul Rudd, as their English teacher, is refreshingly thoughtful. And Charlie is portrayed by Lerman as quietly observant, yearning and delicate in a way that will click with audiences regardless of age". Some critics had a less positive response to the film, with the main criticism being that the portrayal of teenage issues is idealized and the casting uninspired. The Miami Herald critic Connie Ogle notes that "the suicide of Charlie’s best friend, which takes place before the film opens, seems glossed over too quickly" despite the event being Charlie's main character motivation in the film. Jack Wilson of The Age writes, "the script is transparently fake at almost every moment, congratulating the gang on their non-conformity while soft-pedalling any aspect of adolescent behaviour—drug use, sex, profanity—that might upset the American mainstream." Richard Corliss of Time criticizes the casting of actors in their twenties to play teenagers, unlike the film Heathers where the cast were actually teenagers. MTV, Us Weekly and Complex named The Perks of Being a Wallflower one of the best films of the year. Videos Category:Movies